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“At the end of 2020, the STOP Project’s first campaign led to a 60 per cent increase in calls from social media to Barcelona’s Suicide Prevention Helpline”
After the city helpline launched a chat service to encourage contact from those who found it difficult to pick up the phone, STOP Project campaigns are said to have helped increase chat conversations by up to 1,000 per cent, with 70 per cent of messages coming from women and 40 per cent from those under the age of 18. For Freire, the results indicate AI’s vast potential. “What if generative AI could complement an inefficient public mental health system? Of course, it must always be developed alongside multidisciplinary teams of psychologists and psychiatrists,” she postulated. The issue is particularly stark in Spain, where there are thought to be only six psychologists per 100,000 inhabitants compared to the European average of 18. The project’s international expansion will take its model of providing free emotional support to Colombia, Peru, Chile and Panama, in collaboration with local foundations and governments. EB
DIGITAL MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS AI’S POTENTIAL
in 2017. It seeks to identify patterns associated with mental health issues in social media use by analysing posts, images and user behaviour anonymously. Freire explained that the project’s use of AI allows for the study of “the demographic and behavioural patterns common among users showing signs of suicidal ideation, depression or eating disorders”. Helpline numbers or chat services can then be shared discreetly with users who match those profiles. “Without these campaigns, many people wouldn’t know that such resources exist,” Freire added. At the end of 2020, the STOP Project’s first campaign led to a 60 per cent increase in calls from social media to Barcelona’s Suicide Prevention Helpline.
SCHOOL UPF Barcelona School of Management Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
n AI-fuelled mental health initiative established at UPF Barcelona School of
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Management (UPF-BSM) has received $100,000 in funding from TikTok. With notable achievements across multiple campaigns in Spain, the social media behemoth’s money will be used to scale the project into Latin America. The STOP Project was created by Ana Freire, UPF-BSM vice-dean for social impact and academic innovation,
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Business Impact • ISSUE 6 • 2025
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